If you’re a longtime subscriber, you may have noticed something different - as of today, this publication is now called The Launchpad. You’ll still receive weekly career tips, just under an entirely new moniker.

Why the change? The Job Seeker’s Gazette was always intended to be temporary until we could come up with something that better represented our mission - to help people launch and grow their careers, improve their job situations, and make more money.

Onwards and upwards 🚀

Questions to ask yourself before you start your job search

Yesterday I was on the phone with a prospective client - a sales manager to be specific, who was interested in learning about my services.

Before we ended the call, he asked me an interesting question: “Are there any questions I’m missing that I should be asking you?”.

Admittedly, it’s not the first time that someone has asked me that question, but it got me thinking - so I decided to address it in today’s issue of The Launchpad, because I felt like it’s something that applies to every professional that’s about to embark on a new job search.

Because before you even touch your resume, LinkedIn profile etc., there are some important questions you should be asking yourself.

Question 1 - What do I see myself doing next?

You can’t take a trip unless you know your destination (otherwise you’re going to be burning a whole lot of gas for nothing). In a very similar fashion, you can’t start a job search until you figure out where you want to be.

Let’s break down three of the most important factors to consider.

Job Title

An obvious one - which title are you aiming for? Can you narrow it down to one or two? If not, you’ve got some thinking to do.

Why is that important? Homing in on one or two target jobs will ensure you can create a manageable strategy to pursue them (your strategy will cover things like your resume, LinkedIn, and networking methods - networking for one role is hard enough - imagine you had to do it for 5 or 6).

Picture someone that decides to pursue five different career paths simultaneously: graphic design, marketing, project management, event planning, and software sales. Now imagine how quickly that person will become overwhelmed, when they need to create multiple versions of their resume, tailor their LinkedIn profile to appeal to multiple industries, and engage in varied networking activities for each field. This would quickly become a nightmare.

Industry

Want to stay in the same industry that you’re currently in? Or maybe you want to make a lateral move into another one (i.e., you’re a sales development rep in the medical device industry and want to move into SaaS). As with the job titles, having only one or two target industries will make for a much for manageable job search strategy.

Company

What kind of company do you want to work for? Are there specific ones you’re pursuing?

Now there are other factors that are important too, like salary, hybrid/onsite, and culture, but let’s focus on the above three for now. We’ll cover the rest in a later issue.

Question 2 - Are you qualified?

If you’re not qualified for the types of jobs you want, then your job search stops here. I know that some people may tell you to apply anyways, but applying takes time, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not spend time on something that I knew was highly unlikely to produce the results I wanted.

What does it mean to be qualified?

There aren’t any hard and fast rules on this, and every position and employer will be different, but a general rule of thumb use to be meeting 60% of the listed requirements in the job posting. In today’s market, I’d say 80% should be the minimum.

Why is all of this important?

You’ve only got so much time on your hands. If you’re unemployed, you probably have even less time to burn.

A job search takes time. Even with all your ducks in a row, you can expect an average of 4-6 months from the time you start till the time you start your new job.

Imagine how chaotic your search would be if you didn’t have a good understanding of the kinds of jobs you wanted. It’d make life hard in a number of ways:

• Every job and industry comes with its own set of unique terminology that you should incorporate into your resume. How do you create a proper resume/cover letter if you don’t know what you’re applying for?

• A LinkedIn page is like a newspaper ad that brings in interested customers (i.e., recruiters). How do you create an ad if you don’t know what you’re selling or who your customer is? You can’t.

• How do you network and reach out to people if you don’t know what you’re interested in. Even if you were to reach out to recruiters, they’ll only be able to help you if you can tell them where the best place to put you would be.

Reader Questions

What topics do you want to see me cover in future newsletters?

I’d love to hear from you - let me know if you have topics or questions you’d like me to cover.